Tucson, AZ: project update

RE: Where the hell is Ryan?

I've said before that my plans are approximations and usually bad ones
at that. In Tucson, Arizona, this rings true now.

I made my much-awaited (if only by me) departure from Phoenix this
last Monday, hoping to spend a few days in Tucson to speak with Shanti
Sellz, volunteer with No More Deaths, and a few other people. Then
the plan was to go Laredo, Texas to pick up both a bicycle and a trip.

It turns out that my dude in Texas--a border reporter who was nice
enough to stash my bike for a few months--is in Sabinas, Mexico,
covering the rescue attempts for sixty-five workers entombed in a mine
shaft. You've probably heard about it on the news. He'll be in
Coahuila for another week, most likely returning for hazardous
environment training. Word on the street is that local, Nuevo
Laredo-area drug cartels don't like reporters snooping around their
turf. I just read an article on a local police chief who said his job
was to arrest people for burglary, not drug-related violence. Welcome
to Nuevo Laredo. Good luck reporter!

This leaves me bikeless for another couple of weeks--a forgettable
endnote on the list of atrocities.

My plan is to stick around Tucson until mid-week next week and sit
down with Rev. Robin Hoover, one of the more outspoken members of
Human Borders. You might have heard of the man or seen his face in
the news lately. Seems he managed to goose the U.S. State Department
by working with a government-sponsored human rights branch in Mexico
to print and hand out maps to potential desert crossers. The maps had
locations of water stations, the distance one can expect to cover in a
day, etc. You can bet the State Department liked none of that. Never
without their permission. With heavy pressue on the Mexican
government, they put a quick stomp on the maps. Good luck migrants!

Then out to Texas, sometime. Early March?

In related news, I'm learning that approximately 87% of border news
articles and policy discussions are categorically insane. I'm still a
baby in these studies, but I know loony when I see it, and I see a lot
of loony. For the love, if you want to enter into these discussions,
please do two things: one, read articles/opinion for both sides of the
debate (making the faulty assumption that we can oversimplify in this
way) and two, talk with people. Real people. Connect debate with
context.
Failure to do either results in some crazy, close-minded views.

From Diego's, the great fastfood Mexican restaurant south of Fili's,

Ryan,
would-be cyclist for social change

--
www.border101.org